Russia, Ukraine exchange deadly strikes after massive Kyiv attack
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- Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia was hit by a Ukrainian strike on a market that killed five civilians, described by Kremlin-appointed governor Yevgeny Balitsky as 'people who had come to buy groceries'
- Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine suffered a Russian strike that set a house ablaze and killed four — including a girl under two whose 'Russian strike took her life along with her mother's' per Sumy military administration head Oleg Grygorov
- Dnipropetrovsk, Belgorod, and Bryansk saw additional strikes: one killed and five wounded in Dnipropetrovsk from a Russian attack, with two more deaths in Ukrainian strikes on Russia's western Belgorod and Bryansk border regions
- Both air forces reported heavy overnight drone activity — Russia launched two missiles and 105 drones at Ukraine per Kyiv's air force, while Russia's Defence Ministry claimed to have shot down 155 Ukrainian drones
- Thursday's massive Kyiv attack was described by rescue services as one of the most intense drone and missile strikes on the Ukrainian capital since the February 2022 invasion, killing at least 30
Why it matters: The same-day combined barrage — 105 Russian drones into Ukraine and Ukrainian strikes reaching Belgorod, Bryansk, AND occupied Zaporizhzhia in one rotation — shows both sides are widening target reach without de-escalation signals. Civilians on both sides bore the brunt: five shoppers at a market and a toddler under two dying alongside her mother in a residential strike.
